 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
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XX. NATURE AND GRACE.
That Light which is the Life alone can giveThe living Power which makes us love the Light:
Love it in Faith, and with the Godlike might
Of Love, to Love's one object cling and cleave:
But we can only have what we receive.
By conscience taught man's eye discerns the Right;
But this we lack—the strength to scale its height
That we with it might dwell, and in it live.
Science and Song, their constellated wings
Waving from Eastern unto Western skies,
Soar but to sink. Not any bird that flies
Mounts straight ascending—Grace, and Grace alone
Shoots heavenward, as from yonder altar-stone
The sacrificial flame triumphant springs!
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |